Lots of people are driven to lead others. Unfortunately, however, not all of them are guaranteed to succeed in leadership roles. It takes integrity, knowledge and grit to expertly guide any group to its goals. If you ever find yourself facing the daunting responsibility of having to grab the reins and take control, the very first thing you should do is to recognize and acquire the essential character traits of a good leader.
What Are The Traits Of A Good Leader?
The notion that some people are simply born to lead is not entirely accurate. While there are certainly individuals who appear to have been born possessing positive leadership traits such as charisma, charm, and the ability to inspire loyalty, key leadership traits like perseverance and creativity are actually learned things. Moreover, the leadership skills that people are capable of learning, rather than those that are inherently possessed, tend to be the most valuable when determining the likelihood of success. Following are several character traits of a leader that you absolutely must hone before taking charge of any major endeavor.
Recognition Of Talent And The Ability To Delegate
One of the most important traits of a great leader is the ability to delegate. Leaders are best at leading, rather than attempting to micro-manage every minute task of a project. To delegate effectively, leaders must be able to identify the top talent for their needs. Moreover, they have to be willing to fully leverage this talent. It makes no sense to spend time and money seeking out qualified professionals, if you’re a leader who’s too afraid to relinquish control. Being able to delegate tasks and micro-projects effectively helps keep things on track. Moreover, it’s an excellent way to ensure optimum levels of quality, given that each, necessary task can be handled by someone with a specialty skill set.
“If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.”
– John C. Maxwell, American author
Perseverance
People who want to lead often have great vision. They can see projects, products, services and other undertakings reaching positive, productive, and even highly profitable outcomes. Vision, however, is never enough to push a team to success on its own. Without perseverance, nearly every group-managed project would fall flat. That’s because there are bound to be obstacles and challenges that teams face along the way to their goals. A good leader knows how to take unexpected developments in stride by seeking alternate strategies and implementing plans to mitigate damages.
Not only does perseverance require quick-thinking and sufficiently flexibility for dealing rapid changes of course, but it also requires a type of mental doggedness that most people only develop after years of experience and numerous failed efforts.
Honesty
A commitment to being honest all of the time is how leaders inspire trust. When leaders exaggerate details pertaining to deadlines, budgets, profitability and payouts, team member morale declines. Leaders must maintain a consistently high level of integrity in all of their dealings if their to achieve the reputations of trustworthiness that are essential for building strong and wholly committed teams.
Dedication
Leaders should never have a disinterest in what they’re doing. If you don’t love the cause that you’re leading your team in, your own efforts to guide everyone will become stale and uninspiring. Moreover, the remainder of your group will eventually lose their enthusiasm as well. Dedication is not necessary one of those positive leadership traits that you can love. Instead, it is a sense of commitment that often flourishes when strong leaders choose to get behind products, services, or ideas that they’re passionate about.
These are just a few of many, key leadership traits that every good leader possesses. While you might not feel like a natural-born leader, there are certainly countless options in leadership training that can help you build the right attributes for success in this area. At the end of the day, a passion for what you do, quality leadership training, and simply getting good old-fashioned experience will take you far.